Growing a Winter Vegetable Garden - UPDATE & COMPOSTING
So far, our fall/winter garden is doing great here on the homestead!
I must say I am super stoked about how the salanova lettuce is doing. Salanova lettuce has been made popular by the now famous urban farmer, Curtis Stone, & so far it has impressed me. The flavor of the Salanova lettuce is quite lovely, buttery at first & then a slight bitter flavor at the end, but when I first had the Salanova lettuce in the seed trays, it did not look so good, but within a week after being planted in the soil, it has just taken off & looks fabulous!
Hands down, as I have stated in the past, but my fav kale has to be the red russian kale variety. It is so easy to grow, & it is so good! And that variety of kale has never let me down! My kale, as always, looks great this fall & we will most def be eating it all winter & all the way to spring!
So far, both types of perennial onions I planted for the fall & winter, are looking great. I purchased the yellow potato onion, & then another great YouTube channel, 2 cedars micro farm, sent me some egyptian walking onions, which are another perennial onion. Here is a link to their youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ecOHD7STSO09hqdLArdiQ Be sure to go check them out & let them know that Cog Hill sent you over there!
My Alabama blue collards also are doing great, but I am having a huge weed issue right now bc of the unusual hot temperatures we are having. I typically do not have a weed issue in December, but since it's been steady 75 plus degrees all autumn & now into winter, the weeds are still here, hanging around in my garden!
And it is even worse in my spinach bed! The weeds are just taking aver. My spinach actually looks good, but the weeds are starting to suppress the spinach. I am going to have to get in there & pull some weeds & then mulch the garden with chopped leaf mulch & cardboard to try & knock the weeds down. And that is what I did with the cilantro, & it has really stopped the weeds in their tracks!
Now I do not plant in all my raised garden beds. I try to have a type of crop rotation so I can add vital nutrients back into the soil & I do this by adding compostable material to the garden beds & let it break down over time, & once it is broken down, I will start planting my vegetables in them. I just layer the beds with livestock manure, & grass clipping, leaf & straw mulch, feathers, kitchen scraps, etc....and this really does build your soil up & you can really tell it when you pull back the mulch & you see hundreds of earthworms everywhere! That's a good thing!
Contact Us:
Cog Hill Farm
PO Box 2204
Selma, AL 36701
[email protected]
Thank you & hope you have the best day ever!
Jason
Hey your winter garden looks like it's doing great!
Sounds like you have a great winter garden going! I hear you on the warm temps. We are in the FL Panhandle and have the same temps although since you have written this post, the recent cold front coming through should be taking care of your weed problem (or at least taming it down some haha!) :)